Zee versus Zed

Did you know that in England (and many other countries in the world), the letter "z" is pronounced zed? This actually comes up quite a bit in conversation because my home address contains this letter. Whenever I am giving my address to Brits (e.g. the phone company or delivery people), I have to say zed. Additionally, I now have a daughter whose first name begins with that letter. What am I supposed to tell her? Does her name start with a zed or a zee? It's all so confusing.

Really though, it's obviously meant to be zee. Sure, zed came first and is most likely based on the original Greek zeta, but we're American, darn it. We say zee. 

I'll give you three reasons why it should be pronounced zee versus zed:

• The alphabet song
• Sing the alphabet song to yourself. Go ahead. When you get to the end what sounds better? W, X, Y and Zed or W, X, Y and Zee? Zee rhymes. Zed just sounds silly.
• ZZ Top
• Are we really supposed to say Zed Zed Top?
• Jay Z
• Aren't Beyonce and her husband Jay Zed adorable? No. but Beyonce and Jay Zee are.
  

This post was brought to you by the letter Z.

Also, thanks to Randy and Chris for their contributions to this post.